Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-09-07

gorgeous nverIes Inat make you DING r.
look ut them. Some of the livcries that
was shown cost over $1,000 each. They
positively blazed with gold. A grand
nrstciass funeral with retiuue OF foot
men and officials is a dazzling pageant.
As rule the corpse, even when so mag
nincently conducted TO its last home, is
unattended by any relatives. Spaniards
finish with their dead, as a rule, when
the church ceremony is over Few corpses
are accompanied to the cemetery, excapt
bv the undcrtaker's men, But in ordinary
cases the coffin is placed in a yellow open
car and driven up to the cemetery BY n
gentleman in short Jacket and peaked
esp. Tho driver smokes his cigarette and
cracks his whip as he huns his favorite
tune. The ridiculous always lives noxt
door to the sublime. The grotesque and
the horrible are first cousins.
will describe two that / witnessed in
one day at tho great cemetery at Seville
Four little barefooted boys arrive a. tho
cemetery gates. Between them they carry
little blue and white cofin. They log
along, chatting and laughing, up the long
avenue Of trees Presently they see
something which attracts their attention
bird in a tree- Down they drop the cof-
6n by the roadside, and of they scamper
across the grass to the tree. They pick
up stones and begin to throw at the bird.
In the process they quarrel about some-
thing, and two of the BOYS have a fight
In the meantime the cofi lies IN the road.
way. walk up TO Il, AMI through the
glass let into the lid sec the dead child's
face. 1t has been dead perhaps twelve
hours, so the features arc unchanged and
It appears to be calmly sleeping. Several
people pass me; no one takes any notice
Of the comm In the road. Ono old gentle
man nearly tumbles over Il and swears.
It is evidently nothing unusual
Presently these ragged boys havc ar
ranged their little difference. return
add pick up the coffin. Two Of
ihcm have lighted cigarettes. They
larry their burden right across the ceme-
tory to little house, where two or three
men with brass numbers on thoir caps are
smoking cigarettes. Hero they show a pa
Pcr, and one Of the men, picking up a
spade, tells the boys to follow him. on
Ihoy go, jogging the coffin now this way
and now that and follow thom.
We come to long hnc OF brick vaul Is.
Some are empty; some are filled up to the
Iop with what pres ume to be mold. Tho
yravedigger turns over the loose earth
with his spale, and strikes o coffin here
and there. 1t is too full He moves on to
another bricked square, pushes his spade
N, and says there Is just room. He digs
little hole and lays tn, c,fi1 flush with
The top Of the brick work. Then he throws
l few spadefuls Of earth from q mound
,loso by, and the ceremony Is over
rhcro are thousand OF those brickcd
squares in the cemetery, and each con-
oins a score Of Collins. There is no
stone over the top, only tho loose brown
sarth. Some Of thcm arc so full that the
earth has to lie piled up 10 cover tho
cCffin, and thus the cofl a is actually above
ground.
The next funeral arrived rs was leav-
ing the cemetery. A car, driven by q man
smoking n cigarette, came up. 1t was fol-
lowell by q cab, from which alightcd an
Did gentleman, also smoking a cigare tie.
The car pulled up at tho cato Of tho
depository" o little house in the grounds
ranged for the reception Of people who
have died too l0tc TO be buried tn at day.
The guardian OF the house, cigarette in
mouth, filings open the doors, and speaks
% the gentleman, and then calls
Tor somebody 10 como. A man with
cigarette in his mouth now ap-
1rOachcs. He and tho car
iriver LIT out the coffin and carry IL into
he house, and lay il on the trcstlcs. They
5hen light u candle ut the head and foot,
and come out and shut the door. OF
irives the car, the man lighting anothe r
cigarette, and the gentlem an to whom the
corpse belongs strolls across tho CON-
sicry with the gravo-diGger TO choose
This place" Tho gravc-diggor turns up a
little earth in one brick square, and then
In another. "Too FULL" sBys the gentle
nan, putting his cigarette. He goes from
square to square and pokcs at the earth
with his cane At last he settles on a
square which is only half full. That will
TO-" he says, and then no returns TO his
lab and drives away.
make inquiries OF the keeper Of the
depository" The body inside the coffin
S the gentlcman's vito. Sho died last
night She will be buried tomorrow
morning. "W i'll tho gentleman return to
sec her buried!" 'Oh, no; he has left her
here. The rest concerns US"
Unburled collins are bed enough, but
what do you think Of dead children hung
lp outside the cemetery gates, waiting
Tor some kind soul to pay for them to be
put into the carthl Tho sight Is not un.
common in the south OF Spain, whore
every form and shape Of bcggary is ram
pant Sometimes the friends Of q small
corpse, instead of asking charity, will
smuggle IL INTO the ccmotory hidden under
cloak, and when no ono is looking droI
1t into one Of the big, square graves
have told you about and kick little loose
Garth over it There are plenty Of un
cofined dcad under the loose cartn in the
great cemetery OF Seville.
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